


Strategy

by NorthwesternInsanity



Category: Dokken, Music RPF
Genre: Chess, Drama, Fluff, Gen, Hospital, Light Angst, Strategy, Symbolism, sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 11:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14543475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthwesternInsanity/pseuds/NorthwesternInsanity
Summary: Don and Jeff spend a tedious night in a hospital waiting area after George collapses onstage. Jeff is nervous and stir-crazy -nothing Don can do will put him at ease. Until, that is, he happens to find a game board in the waiting room, and Jeff discovers his knack for strategy, and connects it to the state of the band





	Strategy

To say that Don Dokken and Jeff Pilson were having a bad night would be an understatement.

Neither of the two could really tell if it would be a bigger or smaller understatement to say that George Lynch was having a bad night.

Dokken had been touring aggressively, and two weeks ago, Mick had come down with a nasty stomach virus. It only lasted about somewhere between 48 and 72 hours, but it was not fun while it was ongoing. With his weak immune system, Don had been the second one to get sick. They'd pushed through on their busy schedule, unable to really stop for it. Jeff had been the third to get sick, and seemed to have not been affected as badly by it.

However, George had gotten it four days ago, and pretty badly. He had recovered for the most part yesterday aside from having less energy as a result. But today, they'd had a performance outdoors during the late afternoon in high heat time, and it was hot and humid at close to 120 degrees outside.

Needless to say, that hadn't been a good thing. George passed out on the last song of the set. He had been progressively looking more peaky throughout the set, had been sweating profusely, and two songs from the end, he'd suddenly stopped perspiring.

As usual, when any performer passed out onstage, George got carried off. But then the crew decided to take George to the Emergency Room at the nearest hospital to get checked out, just because it was so hot outside, and George had been sick.

The result had come back that George had suffered heat exhaustion and was severely dehydrated -to the point where his smaller, distal veins were trying to collapse. So he'd been sent to the low level care unit off of the emergency department to be hooked up to fluids, and Jeff and Don had to go to the hospital to wait until George had been deemed in the clear to go home. And they'd been assigned to a private waiting room off of a hallway from the unit, where they'd been stuck since George's situation had been declared.

Mick, as always, took the available escape path, and had gone to a bar, and then back to the hotel to check them in for the night.

Don sighed. This whole thing was getting old, and he was getting anxious watching Jeff pacing around from where he sat on the couch. They'd been there for over four hours now, and Jeff had essentially circled around the room the whole time. Occasionally, he sat down on the couch and furled up for a five minute break, then would try to sit still, fail to do so, and go back to pacing. With the exception of a couple of trips down the hall to the restroom, this cycle of Jeff pacing, trying to sit himself down, and pacing more afterwards had gone on the whole time.

Finally, Don reached the point where he couldn't stand it any longer, and he had to get out of this waiting room for a few minutes whether he had a reason to or not. He stood up, stiff from having not moved for two hours.

"I'll be back," he told Jeff, and went out in the hall, shutting their door behind him and moving just a few feet out of the range of the door's swing path, leaned against the sterile white walls. Even this private waiting room hallway outside of the actual unit of hospital rooms had the ever distinctive smell of disinfectant all through it. It was dimly lit, cold, grey tile floors to blend in with the white walls. One would think that a hospital would at least make the waiting area for those responsible for a patient a bit more inviting and cheerful -it usually tended to be nerve wracking enough to be waiting on somebody in the hospital. But, apparently not.

_How in hell is this any better?!_ Don demanded to himself. He really didn't know what to do. On the other side of the hall, through the walls separating this hallway from the hallway going through the unit, Don could hear intercom pagers going off, and nurses shouting orders.

Don knew that that was definitely not George they were shouting about, as he wasn't in any condition near that serious, but regardless of who it was, those sounds were enough to send a shiver up his spine that felt like electrocution, sending chills from his middle all the way out through his limbs. This followed by a wave of heat and dizziness that made him feel for a second like he might pass out. Thank goodness Jeff wasn't in the hall to hear it. Don suspected for him to have this reaction, Jeff would have probably shot through the ceiling.

Shaking his head and taking a deep gulp of air, Don listlessly shuffled down the hall to the restroom. Attempting to snap out of whatever this off-feeling was, he splashed cold water on his face. Internally, he tried to chalk up his paranoid spell to being tired, and his nerves being frayed by this whole bunch of unexpected events today. Contrasting to the hall, the lights were painfully bright in here, to the point at which Don had to squint. When he went back in the hall, this just made everything else look darker, and now it was starting to get scary. Don knew that was silly; there was nothing dangerous in the hall, and nothing bad was necessarily happening just because it was darker in the hall. And he hadn't been nervous when he'd been out here a little over two hours ago, so there was no reason why it would be different now. But he felt it anyway.

Deciding that the room was the lesser of all evils in this hospital, Don made his way back to the waiting room and rejoined Jeff, who was still pacing the room, and closing the door as soon as he was inside. He wanted every possible odd noise that could potentially come up in the hall to be blocked out.

It was only ten more minutes from the time he resumed his place on the couch before he began to feel just as bad as before though.

"Jeff. You're making me nervous. Sit down," ordered Don.

"Where's Mick now, do you think?" asked Jeff. Despite being asked in a way that seemed so innocent, Don could tell by the randomness of the question that Jeff was trying to distract Don from the topic of him sitting down. Jeff had a way of being strategic like that sometimes.

"He probably caught a cab back to the hotel by now," figured Don. "At least I hope that's the case." The last thing he needed was to drag a wasted Mick out of a bar to a cab in addition to George, depending on the condition George would be in when they released him. It was 12:30 in the morning, they were all tired, they were run down after a show, so the nerves weren't so great in combination with it. Another crisis on top of it all would probably result in serious problems that Don didn't want to imagine.

Don honestly did want to be with Mick right now, away from this hospital waiting room. Don could not stand emergency rooms and hospitals, and he was becoming desperately unnerved himself, having sat here for nearly five hours now. Maybe the sheer amount of time was what had him so on edge now. But he knew that pacing the room with Jeff would just make it worse in the end. And he couldn't leave Jeff here alone. Although George would most likely be happier with Jeff there and Don away, under "standard procedure" of the hospital, until they got George's levels stabile, Jeff was strictly to stay out of George's room. That was driving Jeff crazy to not know what was happening. And that was also why Don had to be there whether George wanted him there or not -because there was no telling how frantic Jeff would get if he were here in this waiting room alone. Especially given the eerie silence with the exception of some minor hospital background noises beyond the door.

Jeff paced the room a few more loops, then threw himself down hard on the couch next to Don, curling up in the fetal position, hugging his knees to his chest and rocking himself back and forth a bit. Then, he unfurled his arms from around his legs, rested his elbows on his knees, and pressed his fingers to his lips, alternating which fingers he pushed against his lip harder with -a nervous tic.

"I just want George to get out so we can go back to the hotel," murmured Jeff wistfully.

"So do I, Jeff, but we have to wait for them to make sure that George is alright, since it was obviously more than we anticipated, and we have to stay here until they decide he's okay. They've been giving him fluids, and he'll probably be okay, but they said he was dehydrated enough that his blood pressure went way down, and they want to make sure that that's not going to happen again," assured Don.

"I can't stand this -sitting around here, nothing to do, no updates on this. It's making my stomach hurt," Jeff complained.

Don pushed a hand in the direction of the table in the corner with a few beat up old books on top of it. "Read a book," he said firmly. "Calm down, and read a book." He really didn't need for Jeff to make himself sick to his stomach, if Jeff was serious about that.

Jeff looked at them. "They don't look like very interesting books. One of them I read in high school, and I could hardly care if I read it again. And another," Jeff pointed to _Catch-22,_ "that'd pass the time, but I don't think I could deal with that insanity right now."

Don couldn't help but agree that this was probably true. Though there were some downright hilarious moments in _Catch-22_ , there were also plenty of depressing ones -especially toward the end. And before it, toward the beginning, it was practically a given that in his nervous state, Jeff would fall to the end of his rope due to Yossarian's antics before he'd finally feel the connection to the protagonist. "The third one up there?" he suggested.

Jeff picked up the book, which had a nondescript cover, and opened it up to see what it was. Inside the cover, there was a suspicious, drab green, spotty stain pattern with signs of water damage around it. He looked at it curiously, murmuring something indecipherable, and then touching a fingertip to the surface where the dark green substance mottled the thin paper, unsure what to make of it.

"...Gross? -Oh, gross!" Jeff groaned with disgust, realizing what it was. He tossed the book down on the side table away from them, and quickly closed it. For which Don was glad, as he'd found from experience that he was highly prone to becoming sick when exposed to mold. The early days of rehearsing in a dark, damp cellar were days of chronic illness and lung infections for him.

"Gross is right," agreed Don, rather sardonically, cringing as he spoke. He was surprised how a book in such a state could even belong in a hospital. Don presumed that the staff didn't really look at the books and didn't know; he at least hoped the staff would have removed it if they knew. "That's nasty; I'm half tempted to throw that out. Go wash your hands, and I'm not joking," he ordered Jeff. "Because you have a habit of putting your fingers on your lip when you're nervous, and the last thing we need is for you to get sick too."

Jeff went back down the hall to the restroom to wash his hands. He returned a minute later, sitting down on the couch next to Don, trying to not pace the room, but he still wouldn't sit still -fidgeting non-stop and changing positions more than once every minute.

Don sighed as Jeff shifted again, putting his left ankle up on his right knee in a figure four position, and then shook his foot nervously.

"There's a TV up there on the wall," he suggested, pointing up to it. "I haven't been looking, but you can see what's on it."

Jeff looked up at it. There was a sign on the wall requesting that the channel not be changed. And there was a map, and a crawl at the bottom of the screen. Not necessarily bad stuff to be aware of, but not a good distraction.

"No," murmured Jeff, looking back down.

Don looked up to see for himself.

"Yeah," he sighed a minute later, looking back down. "I guess the news isn't exactly all too exciting -or at least not in a good way."

They sat there a few minutes, Jeff silently fidgeting, and Don simply waiting, looking rather forlorn, and feeling defeated in a sense. Then Jeff got up and began pacing the room again.

Don contemplated attempting to fall asleep again. He was tired. But, as in most cases when he was waiting in an ER -and all things considered, he'd been lucky to have so far not done it too often -he just couldn't do it. Random, totally unrelated nervous thoughts started running through his mind as he tried. _Where are we supposed to be next week? Where do we have that requires a flight? What happens if we miss one of those flights? Is this going to knock us off schedule?_ Things that would for certain push him over the edge long before Jeff's pacing would.

He nearly had to sit on his hands to keep from jumping up off the couch and shouting a big _"shut up!"_ out loud at nobody in particular.

_No, Don,_ he willed himself internally, trying to stare ahead at the window covered by a shade, and not watch Jeff pacing around. _You're fine; everything's going to be fine. Come on. You can't do that here. This is a hospital. You need to be *quiet*._

He stood up, and went over to the side table on the other side of the couch where there was a tissue box and pulled out three three tissues, hesitating to consider the thickness, and pulled out a fourth. Then, he crossed in front of the couch to the side table with the books, and gingerly, with his fingertips guarded by a thick layer of tissues, picked up the book that had been molded. As he did, looking over the table from above, he could see the corner of something sticking out from under the table, facing the wall where it wasn't visible from the room. _What is that?_ Don asked himself. He decided to get rid of the book before doing anything else.

He went back out in the hall, down to the restroom again, and put the molded book in the trash can along with the tissues. Maybe this was a bad thing to do, but it was going to make somebody sick one day, so he had reason enough. He washed his hands and headed back to the room, quickly as possible.

_Where was I?_ he wondered to himself. Oh yes. The side table. What was under there? Something to keep occupied with? At this point, Don was willing to do anything as a distraction.

Don closed the door behind himself, making a beeline for the side table, looking away from Jeff who was still making laps around the room. He leaned down, touching the object. It was a box of some sort. Curious to see what it was, he slid it out from under the side table. 

The box was old and beat up, faded, but Don could see printed on the outside of it, a picture of a classic game board with distinct pieces. A chess board.

Maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea. Don looked inside the box, just to make sure some kid, or not well behaved adult hadn't taken pieces out of it. He was surprised to find everything still there and accounted for. It had been a while since he'd attempted a game, and having self-taught himself through books when he was in foster care before he had his guitar, Don was pretty certain his skill was average at best. But even if Jeff was a real whiz kid at it and he was setting himself up to get knocked out, it was something to do. Definitely better than sitting in near silence, with nothing to distract from nervous thoughts. Don wasn't sure how much longer he could stand watching Jeff pace around the room either.

He pulled out the board, to make sure that it wasn't molded or covered in something equally as nasty, and found it to be in relatively good shape.

Don decided that this was the best bet for Jeff and himself, and took action.

"Are you going to pace around the room all night?" he asked.

"Not until we get an update on George or there's something better to do, I guess." Jeff's voice was monotonous, a sure sign he was at wit's end. Any longer, and he would start getting upset. And whenever Jeff was nervous and got upset on top of it, it could be a difficult thing to see without feeling pangs of heartache.

"Come here, then. I found something we can do," said Don, pointing to the box, which he set down on the table in front of the couch.

Jeff scampered over as if somebody had just heated the tiles under his feet red hot. He skidded to a stop, almost crashing into the coffee table, demeanor changing. 

"Where'd you get that?" he asked incredulously.

"Was fooling around and happened to notice the box sticking out from under the corner table. Pulled it out to see what it was, and there you have it," said Don.

Jeff looked at it, curiously, but a bit cautiously. "I didn't know they put chess boards in hospital waiting areas. That's interesting." He had some air of uncertainty to his behavior, and it took a second for Don to figure it out.

"Never played before?" Don asked.

Jeff shook his head. "My grandfather was gonna teach me, and then it never happened."

Don wondered a second why that never happened, and then decided not to ask, in case if the reason behind it wasn't a good thing for Jeff. Instead, he brought things back to the present.

"You seem to have a knack for strategy when writing, so you'd probably be good at it. Do you want to learn it?"

Jeff had his hand in the box, tapping curiously at the different pieces, eyes hazy as if he were in a far off world, contemplating it. He sat up, snapping out of his trance, perking up slightly. 

"Yeah? You can show me how?" he asked, as if he were slightly surprised at this coming from Don.

"Looks like we don't have much else to do for a while. Why not? It's been a while since I've played, so I won't be a real interesting player to oppose," warned Don. "But it'll pass the time. If you want to."

Jeff nodded eagerly. He pulled up a chair from the corner and dragged it over to the coffee table.

Don set the board up while Jeff got the chair. "Alright, so I'll explain what each of these pieces do, and then we can try it."

"I know that the pawns are the least powerful," said Jeff, setting the chair on the opposite side of the table so he faced Don, and sinking down into it.

"That's generally true," confirmed Don. "However, if you have a pawn reach the other side of the board, you get to promote it and make it whatever piece you want it to be. They call that 'promoting'. And it's up to you, so you can theoretically make it powerful. It just has to get there."

"So I could have more of something else?"

"Yes. Except the king. You can't replace that, because that determines whether you're in the game or not. Starting with the pieces though, we have the pawns, like we said. These are probably actually the hardest to explain, because they have the most limitations as to what you can do. Pawns move straight across from where they are. So like this," explained Don, moving one of the white pawns straight across the board. "They cannot go over any other piece either, the way has to be clear.

"The first move you make, you can do two spaces. After that, you can only move one space with a pawn. You can move one space your first move with a pawn, but after that you can still only move one space. You can't save that double move for later. Alright?"

Jeff nodded, watching silently. His eyes were locked in on the board, and he was barely fidgeting at all, rather intrigued by it, studying the patterns.

"Pawns attack on a diagonal from where they are. So if you have a pawn here..." Don moved a black pawn so it was out diagonal from his own, "...I could attack yours on the diagonal, or if I made a move and they were still there, you could get mine."

"What happens with this?" asked Jeff, putting the black pawn back and moving the one next to it out so that it was directly in front of the white one.

"So, pawns can only go on a diagonal if they're attacking, and the way has to be clear for them to go straight. So in this case, unless you come in with another piece, you have to get another pawn at a diagonal to take one of them out. These pawns here in a game setting would be stuck," explained Don.

"And getting stuck isn't a good thing," stated Jeff. He could assume that getting stuck in a game was a bad thing -as getting stuck in real life was problematic too. Just a couple of months ago, he'd gotten himself stuck falling through part of a stage, and he hadn't liked it a bit! It had been painful, messy, and the embarrassment was worse than anything else.

"Usually, no. If you have a couple of pieces stuck, it's not too big of a deal, but if you get a lot of pawns trapped like that, you can get a good portion of the board locked, and that's difficult to get out of. But, there are cases where you can get one pawn stuck as a defense for another piece to get behind, or to use as a lure if you have multiple pieces lined up." Don put the two pawns stuck by each other in the center of the board, and then brought another white pawn out. 

"I could potentially try to bring in another pawn, or, another piece of mine -which we'll get into what those can do in a second -but if you have another one of your pieces waiting along the way of my pawn getting to yours, you could catch it. Or," Don paused and brought out a black pawn diagonally behind the black pawn that was stuck. "You could let me catch this pawn, but then behind it, there's this black pawn on the diagonal, and your next move could take out mine, and then you'd be in position to take out my pawn that was stuck too. So there can be an advantage to getting stuck, but you have to look at whether the situation you're in will give that advantage, or if you're just getting yourself in trouble."

"I see," murmured Jeff. Don could tell he was intrigued, because of how still and quiet he was. His eyes darted back and forth over the board though, considering the possibilities.

"Ready to look at the other pieces and get things interesting?" asked Don.

"Yes!" Jeff perked up, snapping out of his trance again. It was actually quite adorable, this behavior Jeff displayed now rather than his repetitive pacing.

"Alright. This here," said Don, moving out a piece that had a relatively conical shape on top with a slight spherical embellishment, "is a bishop. This one can move diagonally across the board. You can move it as many spaces in one way as you like as long as there's nothing in the way. Real simple. It attacks on a diagonal too, so bishops -you can move them around a lot, but you're limited as to where you can go with them and where you can attack, because they stay on the square color that they started on."

"So I have one bishop that starts on a red square, and one on a black square," noted Jeff.

"Yes. And that's why, because you have one that can go where the other can't. Until you lose one, that is, then you can only use the one bishop you have on whatever color it's on." Don put the bishop back, and then pulled a piece from the very outer corner of the board. "And this is a rook. The rook is very similar to the bishop -same rules for how far you can move it, except it moves on horizontal lines. And because they move on horizontals, they can go more places than a bishop can, because they can go on all the squares."

"And where they can all go starts coming together," said Jeff matter of factly. He was starting to get excited about actually playing a round and seeing of what he was figuring out in his mind would work.

"Yeah, it does," said Don. "And then we got three left. We have Knights, and they're a little weird. They move in an L-shape, so they _can_ jump over something that's in the way. Two spaces one horizontal direction, and then one space in another horizontal direction." Don traced the pattern with a Knight piece.

"And that leaves the king and the queen," said Jeff, knowing the obvious two left.

"Yes. The king can move in any direction, but one space at a time, and it can't be blocked. Common misconception is the king is the most powerful piece. It's the piece that determines your victory or loss, but it's the queen that has the most power. You can move it just about anywhere along any direction. But you _really_ have to think about where you're moving it to, and what's around it, because you've only got one, and you don't want to lose it early in the game if you can avoid it. You could promote a pawn to queen, but it'll be a while before you'd be able to get a pawn across the board, and chances are it could be taken before that."

"And then checkmate is what happens when the game is over," said Jeff resolutely. "That I knew."

"Yes. You're in 'check' when, say one of your pieces is in position so that one move, and You could capture my king. Maybe, let's say you got your rook all the way to my side of the board, and you could slide right over and take it on your next move. When that happens, you say 'check' to let your opponent know that your piece is in position for that. Then, I _have_ to get out of check, either by moving my king out of the way, putting another piece in the way of it, or using one of my pieces to take out the piece that you were going to attack with. If my pieces are in a position where I can't do any of these, and there's no way out of check, then I say 'checkmate', and the game is over."

"That's about it?" asked Jeff. He'd heard of chess being very complicated, and it didn't seem as complicated as he'd thought aside from remembering what each piece did, and trying to get them to where they'd work for him.

"Just about. We're not going to do anything complicated here like timing or castling on this one for the sake of simplicity. There are some weird tricks and other little rules that can't really be explained until you get into a situation that involves them. You just have to play the game to find out, and learn it by doing it. Figure out what works for you and what doesn't work. And then what worked in one game might not work in another," explained Don.

"Kinda like forming a band, huh?" asked Jeff, drawing the analogy. "You can have all the components, and some can do the same things as others and get away with it, but others can't. And some bands get wild recognition for trying to do something different while others get scorned for it."

Don raised an eyebrow, surprised. He thought to himself:

_Wow... I still can't wrap my head around this kid's thought process. He's so wild and sporadic onstage, and then you get him to settle down and this sort of symbolic, intuitive stuff comes out of him._. 

Don did realize that Jeff's hyper-energetic behavior, extreme optimism, and generally being the youngest in the band made it easy for them to see him as "the kid." He had an adult thought process in consideration of the situation of life, but he still acted innocent toward a lot of other things, and tended to prefer being a big kid onstage, because it made things fun for him. Despite this, Jeff was indeed grown up, and well aware of a lot of things -more than he let on. Still... He tried to go along with the comparison as if it hadn't nearly floored him.

"Not a bad way of putting it, really. And probably the same thing applies in a lot of other industries too," Don considered. It probably did. Entrepreneurship for sure, and plenty of others that were beyond what he could think of from the front of his mind.

"We were in check, and Tooth and Nail got us out of check," symbolized Jeff.

"And it sure did -thank goodness, because that was a close one. Things are going well though -we're making progress here on this tour," said Don.

"Think we'll stay out of 'check' and continue be successful together?" asked Jeff. There was something about the way he asked that, looking up, his doe like eyes wide and questioning, and so innocent looking. His voice had shifted from cheerful to something that was almost worried, and if seeing that and not knowing how to answer didn't tug at a person's heartstrings, Don didn't know what did.

"I hope so, Jeff. That's for sure, but we can't be certain until it happens. You know, we go in, put together what we recorded on the road and finish it up in the studio when we get back from tour, and we put it out, and we won't know if it was a good move or not until we see how people react and we get back out on the road. Hopefully it will, and if it doesn't, then we try something else to see if we can improve it." Don hoped that things went well, but he really couldn't promise anything until it happened, and hoped his explanation was understandable for Jeff.

"We kinda just have to play the game to see what happens," murmured Jeff.

"Pretty much. Ready to try it?" asked Don.

Jeff nodded and settled in as they reset the board from the demonstrations. 

Don took the first move, shifting a white pawn to B4, and waited, watching Jeff study Don's first move to start building a plan off of it. As Jeff studied it, he leaned so far forward on the edge of the chair that if he were to shift any closer, he'd slide right off and go crashing into the table. His eyes seemed to squint slightly, nose wrinkling a bit as he contemplated his decision. Don found it rather endearing.

There was also some of this behavior that made Don unable to help but see Jeff as the little brother he never had of sorts. And Jeff spent more time with George naturally. Though Don had to accept to the point that Jeff being closer to George didn't mean that Jeff was against him, it was hard to not feel isolated because of it. And he felt protective to a point -there was nothing worse than when he found George and Jeff high on cocaine to the point at which Jeff would have a bloody nose. He'd seen other guys get into trouble from it and get really sick, and he didn't want Jeff to end up that way.

Jeff made his decision and slid one of his pawns forward to B6, only one space, and not too far from Don's own as if to be in line for attack later, but not get stuck.

Don moved out his knight behind the pawn he'd first moved, and shifted it to A3. "Jeff, scoot back in your seat a little bit. You're gonna take a tumble forward, and then the game will end in stalemate, because the board will get knocked out. And don't even try to figure out what that would be in your analogy, because it'd probably give us both nightmares."

Jeff giggled, his cheeks tinting pink, and he shifted back ever so slightly. He moved one of his pawns out two spaces to A5 so he was lined up to free his rook and make an attack.

Moments like these, where Don could spend time with Jeff to talk over things or engage in activities not related to the music, recording, and preparing for upcoming shows were rare. It was sad that it took George to be held up in the ER for it to happen. Yes, George got on his nerves and did things that Don couldn't help but hate him for, but Don still didn't wish for George to be sick. It wasn't a good thing for any of them. Part of him wanted to think it was just the hospital staff exaggerating it. Maybe they could see signs of George's cocaine use and were trying to scare him into stopping by making it look like he was sicker than he was. Of course, Don couldn't see how telling somebody their veins were nearly collapsed from dehydration would make a connection with drug use. Which worried even him.

But, at least this one good thing could be pulled out of it, even if overall, the situation was bad.

Don studied Jeff's formation he was creating. These were timid pawn moves so far, but it was making an awkward wall to determine means of getting around without setting himself up to get taken right away. He could get a knight in between the formation, but he wouldn't be able to get anything on the first move, and then he'd possibly lose it. Deciding to forfeit his pawn, as it was in line to possibly get taken on Jeff's next move anyway, he moved his from B4 to A5, capturing Jeff's pawn.

And then, as he expected, Jeff slid his pawn on B6 over to A5 and took out Don's pawn.

"Is that correct?" asked Jeff, making sure his move was legal.

"Attack on forward diagonal -yes, you can do that," affirmed Don. "You're getting it." He moved his knight over to C4, away from Jeff's pawn, but also in position to get to it, and allowing him freedom to get out a bishop later.

Jeff studied the board, wanting to move out a pawn on the other side of the board and spring a surprise twist in the game progress. Then...

_Wait a second... Don't knights move in L-shape patterns?_ He traced a line with his eyes from Don's knight on C4 to his own pawn on A5. _Uh-oh. I'd probably better move that._ He shifted his pawn to A4.

"Good move," said Don, encouraging Jeff. Not only had Jeff gotten out of the way, but he'd made it so he couldn't move his pawn in the A column out two spaces at all, and if he moved it one space, he'd get them stuck, and it would complicate getting his bishop out. He could still get his rook out, but he'd have to go out indirectly over multiple moves around the pawn. There was no immediate threat to moving his bishop out to A3 now, but no advantage either. So instead, he decided to even up the activity and shift to the other side of the board, moving a pawn out to H4.

Jeff opted to slide his rook out to A6 and not wind up in a trap on the other side, or put himself into position for attack by knight on A5.

_He can already see it. Just like I expected,_ Don thought to himself. Jeff would end up being a pretty good player if he were to keep playing and learning.

He slid his rook to H3 behind his pawn on the other side of the board. He'd have to see if Jeff figured it out.

Jeff must have noticed that _something_ was up, because he slid his rook over to F6 to get closer to whatever Don was trying to do so he was in line to move into attack without being in line for attack yet. 

Don moved his pawn to H5. If only it were a knight and not a rook that Jeff had just moved. Jeff looked at the situation, puzzling at it again. Moving his pawn that was out would only succeed in getting himself and Don stuck to no advantage he could see -especially if Don were to pull his bishop out. So he pulled a pawn out to C6.

Don raised an eyebrow. Jeff hadn't seen it yet. He shifted his knight to A3. Jeff contemplated, then moved his rook over to D6, unsure of what Don was planning on doing with the pieces on the other side of the board, and backing off some. Was he trying to make a direct attack on Jeff's pieces with a pawn?

Don shifted his rook to H4. Looked like he was going to be able to do it after all.

Jeff looked at the board. _Uh-oh._ Well, there was no saving that pawn now. Don's knight was in the way of it, so it was stuck. He decided to continue along elsewhere, not wasting a move on a doomed thing, and freed his own bishop by sliding it to A6.

And then Don slid his rook over all the way across the board to A4 and took the pawn.

Jeff contemplated pulling another pawn out to G5, then realized that his bishop was in the way of Don's rook. He moved his bishop diagonally over to B5, not wanting to put it where Don could send his knight back and capture it.

Don noticed how Jeff was now flushed in the cheeks, locked in on the board still, and his breathing had gone into a deeper pattern. He was really focused. Don was pretty sure that he could shout and Jeff wouldn't notice it. He wasn't going to test that hypothesis though -it wouldn't be fair to potentially distract. It also wouldn't be nice if he were to scare Jeff. He slid his rook up to A8. This was going to get interesting.

Now Jeff pulled his pawn out to G5, freeing his bishop and his knight on that side of the board.

Don slid his rook over to where Jeff still had his other knight on B8 and captured it, leaving nothing between his rook and Jeff's king. "Check."

Jeff leaned forward like he was going to crash out of his chair again, pushing his fingertips against his lip again, looking at his options. He then slid his king diagonally into C7, out of check.

"Good," said Don, letting Jeff know that he was indeed out of check. "Get back in your seat before you fall." He waited to see Jeff slide back a bit, and then decided to take a look at whatever Jeff was doing over on the other side of the board. 

Interesting formation -Don had a pawn on H5, and Jeff had one on G5. Seeing he could trap Jeff's rook behind it's pawn in that corner, he slid his own pawn forward one space, and realized a second too late that he'd gotten himself cornered. _Crap, bad idea, Don._ Not only was his pawn stuck, but it was in the line of Jeff's knight, his bishop, and Jeff's other rook.

Then he realized that strategizing about the other side of the board was a worse idea, because he'd forgotten where he'd left his rook on B8, and what had an open line to it.

Jeff slid his queen over and took out Don's rook. The corners of his lips turned up, knowing what he'd managed to do and being proud of it.

"You got me there," chuckled Don, assessing what to do next. Nothing to do about the pawn he'd cornered now.

_What do I have to work with here? Let's see, I have my knight on A3, I can bring my bishop out to B2 and then take it from there, I could move my other knight out, I could move my pawns and get my other bishop out, or the queen if I have the guts for the risk right now..._ Don studied it, found a move, then moved his knight from G1 to H3.

Jeff put his king back in it's original place on D8. Don then realized if he had taken his other knight and gotten Jeff's bishop on B5, he'd have put Jeff back in check, because he could have moved the knight again and gotten the king. Oh well, it wasn't there anymore. He could still take out the bishop and reduce Jeff's diagonal movement on that side of the board. So he did.

Jeff moved his knight from G8 to H6 and caught Don's trapped pawn. He wanted to slide his rook down and take out Don's pawn and get to the king, but that would be playing with fire, since he could be taken out by a bishop or a queen. Then again, he did have another rook, and it would take out Don's defenses. Deciding to chance it -after all, he was a greenhorn to this! -he slid his rook down to D2 and took out the pawn in front of Don's king.

"Check," he murmured with a small grin, wondering how Don would go about it.

Don took it out with his bishop. "Averted." Oh, now they were getting into a battle! Jeff took out Don's knight by moving his pawn to B5. Don took his bishop up to G5, taking out another one of Jeff's pawns. 

Don slid his pawn up to F4, getting in position to move his other bishop out. Jeff saw this and brought his knight over to F5, getting Don's pawn stuck. _And he was giggling about it!_ Don didn't find that surprise too funny, but by this point, it was fun, and getting quite heated now, so he laughed too. It also was rather nice to see Jeff having this much fun in contrast to before. He moved a pawn to G3 to get his bishop out.

Jeff slid his pawn to H6 as a bait pawn. Don took it out with his bishop, and then Jeff moved his rook down and captured it.

"I dunno, man, a minute ago you were in a rough place, and you're getting me now!" declared Don.

Jeff giggled. "I'm just trying it -I dunno what'll happen." He moved his knight to E3. Don didn't have a direct attack here, so he moved his own knight to H5 out of danger from Jeff's rook. Jeff moved his knight down and took out Don's bishop on F1. To which Don responded by taking it out with his queen. Jeff moved his rook down to H2 with some thought -if he moved it all the way down, it'd be in the path of the queen. 

Knowing what Jeff was trying to do, Don brought his rook out to B1, prepared to go after him while Jeff was effectively blocked from moving into check. Jeff brought his bishop down to H6 to start working on Don's other pieces blocking the king. Don captured Jeff's pawn at B5 with his rook.

And then, in a gutsy move, Jeff took out Don's rook with his queen.

Don looked at what he had on that side as options. Not much from his current position. He moved his knight to F7, taking out a pawn, and leaving one L-shape away from Jeff's king. "Check."

Jeff moved his king over one space to C8, out of the range of the knight L pattern. Don slid his queen out to F3 to get it free to possibly run up for an attack. 

Jeff slid his queen down to B1. "Check!"

Nothing between his queen, Don's king, and nothing in position to move between or take him out. Don was pretty impressed.

"Looks like that's Checkmate, Jeff. What do you think about that?"

Jeff looked at it, unsure what to think. He'd been aiming for attack, but he got so into it, he hadn't even thought about what it meant or where he was. "I did...?" he asked, looking for a second, before blushing slightly and grinning shyly. "I guess I did!"

"Not bad at all for a first. Good job," congratulated Don. "Seems you're a natural at this -you sure this isn't your first game?" he asked, narrowing his eyes, but he was joking playfully, and it triggered a bit of giggling from Jeff.

Before Jeff could say anything more, a nurse with release papers came to the door.

"Mr. Dokken?"

"Right here -and please just call me Don." Don stood up, and couldn't help but feel being addressed by that formal title sounded like some 60 year old guy in an office!

"Alright. Mr. Lynch's blood pressure has returned to normal. His hydration level is back up to an acceptable range to send him home. He suffered a mild degree of heat exhaustion, but nothing too serious. He is however presumably very tired, because he slept soundly for three of the hours we had him hooked up -and though we wish it was that easy for all of our patients to sleep like that, it's not a typical thing."

"Anything we need to do?" asked Don. Jeff had shot up out of his chair with the news that George was going to be okay, and was quickly packing everything up and moving the chair back so that the room was as they'd found it.

"Make sure he gets rest tonight -it's easier said than done on hectic schedules, as a twelve hour night shift nurse, I know it -but try to get as best as possible, and then make sure he continues to stay hydrated if he's going to be performing strenuously in high heat. Especially until he's completely over the virus you mentioned he had -that can get you in the hole pretty quick."

"Oh, we know about that, it kind of went around our whole camp. Guess we'll have to try a little harder to make sure everyone's ready for the stage. But I can assure, we're all tired and we're going straight to the hotel as soon as he's released." Don glanced up at the clock on the wall and saw it was 1:45 in the morning. He and Jeff had killed some serious time.

Alright, well we have him ready, and if you sign, we'll have these documented and sent back, and then we'll have you all on your way." The nurse handed Don the clipboard to sign for George. On tour, Don was in charge of most Emergency Room signing, Mick being the backup if Don were the one to come down sick, or if Don couldn't be there.

Don signed for George's release, and the nurse left with the papers. He turned to Jeff.

"I'm going to the hall phone to call for a cab. When we get back, as soon as you and George get into your room, go to bed. He's tired, you heard what the nurse said, and I know you're tired too." Don could tell, because now that Jeff had settled down from his panic, even though he was still awake and active putting the room back, his eyes were a bit droopy.

Jeff nodded in understanding. That he agreed so quickly just confirmed he was finally ready to crash off his energy.

Don left the room and made the phone call for a cab to pick them up. It would be a bit longer before they'd finally get George ready to go, so that would give the cab time to arrive. By the time Don got off the phone in the hall, Jeff had the room back in order, and rather than pacing it, had curled up on the couch and fallen asleep.

_Oh boy,_ he thought, knowing he'd have to wake Jeff up soon, and he'd be hard pressed to do it. He couldn't carry Jeff though, or George might get upset -and though he ordinarily wouldn't care if George decided to get his panties in a bunch and pick a fight over it, Don knew that both he and George had been through enough tonight. George was much better now, but he definitely didn't need to carry Jeff. 

Don sat down in the chair and waited. Fifteen minutes later, the nurse called them to come out into the hall and meet George outside the waiting area hallway.

"Jeff?" Don put his hand on Jeff's shoulder and lightly shook him. "Jeff, come on. It's time for us to go back to the hotel. George needs to get some rest."

Jeff slowly opened his eyes. He was completely tuckered out. "Hmm?" he murmured, as if he had completely missed what Don had said.

"We're ready to go. George is released, the cab is here, and it's time to go to the hotel and get some proper rest." It was 2:00 in the morning now.

Jeff sat up, yawning so hard that it was contagious and Don felt the urge to do the same. However, the younger started to nod off again before he could stand up. Given all the pacing Jeff had done after running around stage like crazy and their hectic schedule, this was understandable.

"Oh, alright," sighed Don. Hopefully, George wouldn't find it as a reason to pitch a fit, and would be sympathetic to Don not wanting to force Jeff awake, given that George was tired too. George was very close to Jeff and tended to be protective of him, but there was no law against Don taking care of Jeff either. He helped Jeff up, and hugged him to his side so that Jeff could walk leaning up against him and not fall over in his half-asleep-and-semi-conscious state.

They made their way out in the hallway. George waited for them, leaning against the wall, a bit paler than usual for him, his eyes a bit baggy with tiredness, but no worse for the wear. A whole lot better than when he'd passed out.

"You alright?" asked Don. 

"Yeah -tedious as shit stuck with an IV for six hours though," groaned George. "Is Jeff alright?"

"He's fine -he just crashed. Nervous wreck -he kept pacing around the room nonstop for almost five hours," explained Don.

"You let him freak out and pace around for five hours and wouldn't send him in with me?" demanded George. _Oh boy..._

"You think I wouldn't have let him if the nurse hadn't specifically told us it was a quote 'big no-no' and made us keep out?" asked Don rhetorically.

George rolled his eyes. Don hoped that was at the nurse's orders and not at him. They made their way down to the cab.

"If it makes you feel any better, we did find something to do. They had a chess board hidden under the corner table where practically nobody would find it. Turns out Jeff's a real natural at it," remarked Don.

"Heh. I didn't know he played. Doesn't surprise me though," noted George. George knew quite well how Jeff's deep thought process was.

"He didn't. I had to teach him -it was his first time," admitted Don. He hoped George would accept that as reason to believe that Don really had tried to keep Jeff from getting stir crazy.

"Oh." George smirked, proud of his best friend. Leave it to Jeff.

They climbed in the back of the cab, Jeff situated between Don and George. When the gear shifted into drive, Jeff woke up and realized who was with them. He detached his loose hold on Don's side, diving over to the left side of the car to hug on George, so enthusiastically that George let out a groan, being caught by surprise.

"Jeff, take it easy," warned Don, sighing to himself. It was the end of his time with Jeff tonight, and though he tried not to, he felt a bit glum about it. But, at least they'd had a good time all things considered, and this was a good thing too. Jeff needed to see George okay, and now it was his time with George for the night.

"I'm okay," George chuckled, hugging Jeff back. "I'm alright, it's gonna be alright." His assurances didn't quite do the trick until Jeff had held on for a good ten seconds, and then upon shifting back into his seat, crashing asleep again leaning sideways against George's shoulder. 

"I don't think I need to say it, but just in case -nurse's orders for you, and my orders on Jeff: Both of you, when we get to the hotel, are going directly to bed. And so am I, so it's fair," ordered Don.

George nodded, before zoning out over the time of the ride.

_***1987, three years later***_

Jeff sat on the set of the video recording process for Heaven Sent. A dimly lit, depressing, run down bar scene around him. He sat at the table alone, studying the chess board he'd come to know quite well by now.

He couldn't help but think of the comparison, years before.

Under Lock and Key had been a great move for them. It had been massive.

But touring had been a nightmare. Especially toward the end. There were things flying around, drama, tension, and all he had wanted to do most of the time was get high out of his mind so he was numb to it. And even still, there were some nights that hadn't been enough. Don would get angry out of nowhere on those nights -to the point at which it was scary.

Now, they were trying on their next album -Back for the Attack. It was tied to the analogy. Things at least seemed a bit better now -George and Don were getting along a whole lot better now to everyone's surprise. But would it really be a comeback in the game? Would it last?

And was it even a game anymore, or were they just playing against themselves like Jeff was now, and doomed to fall back into check again?

He studied the board, acting out his part, and switching sides to play the other part. He'd really managed to get himself cornered on both sides. Nobody was in danger, nobody was stuck, but nobody really had an immediate move where they could win, and there were only a few options left to get out of this situation and possibly bring about a victory.

But then, if it didn't work out, and the fighting started up again, it really would be like this. Because in reality, nobody would win if the band broke up due to recurring issues. Maybe through something else, they might not necessarily lose if it happened, but it certainly wouldn't be a victory.

He remembered Don saying to not even draw an analogy as to what a stalemate would be in the band, as it wouldn't rest easy with them. Jeff was now starting to realize what it could be.

And though it was seeming as though the odds were against them, Jeff just hoped it would somehow turn around this tour for them. And stay turned around.


End file.
